Clients & monitoring targets

ShowTrak Server keeps an eye on three different kinds of things, and they all sit side by side on your dashboard. Knowing the difference helps you choose the right one for the job.

The three types

ShowTrak Clients

A ShowTrak Client is a computer/vm running the ShowTrak Client app. Once adopted, it connects to the Server over your network and automatically reports its health: online/offline status, CPU and memory usage, USB devices, running applications, network details, and uptime. These are the machines you can wake, run scripts on, and update remotely.

Use a ShowTrak Client when you want full monitoring and control of a Windows, macOS or Linux machines.

Dummy Clients

A dummy client is a placeholder you create yourself. It doesn't run any ShowTrak software — instead it waits for a "heartbeat" signal sent to the Server (over OSC or the HTTP API) from some other system. If the heartbeat keeps arriving it shows as online; if it stops, it goes offline.

Use a dummy client to represent something that can check in but isn't a ShowTrak Client — for example an external playback system, a custom script, or a piece of show‑control software you want represented on the dashboard, for example a QLab workspace.

Monitoring Targets

A monitoring target is any network device or service the Server checks on a schedule — a server, website, network switch or dante reciever for instance. The Server actively probes it and reports whether it is reachable and how quickly it responds.

Use a monitoring target when you want to keep an eye on something on the network but don't (or can't) install ShowTrak software on it.

What you see on each tile

Every tile shows a coloured status so you can read the room at a glance:

• Green — Online and healthy
• Orange — Degraded (online but with a problem worth checking, such as a missing critical USB device, or a slow response time)
• Red — Offline, with a timer showing how long it has been gone

Click the gear icon on any tile to open its editor. Double‑click a tile to see more detail or its recent history.

Adding a ShowTrak Client

Real clients aren't created by hand — they appear on their own once the ShowTrak Client app is installed and running on a machine on your network. Adding one is called adopting.

1. Switch to Edit mode (bottom‑left).
2. The DISCOVER area appears, listing any machines that have announced themselves but aren't yet adopted. Each shows its hostname and IP address.
3. Click Adopt on the device you want.
4. It moves into your dashboard under No Group.
5. Open its gear icon to give it a friendly nickname and assign it to a group.

If a client doesn't appear, make sure the ShowTrak Client app is running on that machine and that both computers are on the same network with the ShowTrak apps allowed through the firewall.

Replacing a machine

If a client is offline because the physical computer was swapped out, open the offline client's editor and use Replace. You can then pick a freshly discovered device to take over the old one's nickname and group — handy when you re‑image or replace hardware.

Adding a Dummy Client

1. Switch to Edit mode.
2. Click the + menu (top‑right) and choose Create Dummy Client.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Title — the display name shown on the tile.
   • ID — a unique identifier with no spaces (for example PlaybackMac). This is the value an outside system uses when it sends a heartbeat.
   • Interval — how often a heartbeat is expected. If none arrives within the interval the client is flagged, and after a second missed interval it goes offline.
   • Group — where the tile appears.
4. Click Save.

The dummy starts as Idle until its first heartbeat arrives. Send heartbeats from your other system using the OSC or HTTP address /API/Dummy/<ID>/Heartbeat (see the OSC/API reference).

Adding a Monitoring Target

You can add a target by hand, or let the LAN Discovery Wizard find it for you (see that guide).

1. Switch to Edit mode.
2. Click the + menu and choose Create Monitoring Target.
3. Fill in the details:
   • Nickname — the display name.
   • Address — the IP address, hostname, or URL to check.
   • Monitoring Method — how to check it (see below).
   • Interval — how often to check.
   • Degraded Threshold (ms) — optional. If the response takes longer than this, the target turns amber even though it's still reachable. Leave at 0 to disable.
   • Group — where the tile appears.
   • Some methods add extra fields (such as a port number) once you pick them.
4. Click Save. The target shows as Unknown until the first check completes a moment later.

Monitoring methods

A target is online when its latest check succeeds, degraded when it succeeds but is slower than the degraded threshold, and offline when the check fails (timeout, refused connection, bad response, and so on). When offline, the tile shows the last error where one is available.

Editing a client, dummy, or target

1. Switch to Edit mode.
2. Click the gear icon on the tile.
3. Change what you need:
   • ShowTrak Clients — set a nickname and group. Hostname, IP, MAC address, and version are shown for reference. You can also trigger Check for Updates here.
   • Dummy Clients — change the title, ID, interval, or group.
   • Monitoring Targets — change the nickname, address, method, interval, degraded threshold, method‑specific settings, or group.
4. Click Update / Save.

You can also drag any tile into a different group while in Edit mode.

Deleting a client, dummy, or target

1. Switch to Edit mode.
2. Click the gear icon on the tile.
3. Click Delete (for monitoring targets and dummy clients this is in the Danger Zone section).
4. Confirm when asked.

Deleting a ShowTrak Client removes it from your dashboard but does not uninstall anything on the machine — if that computer is still running the Client app, it will reappear in DISCOVER ready to be adopted again. Deleting a dummy client or monitoring target removes it permanently.